[MusicMan]

Hey,

Is it possible to run PHP & mySQL on OS 9? I know some have it running on OS X. I'd like to get it going for self-teaching purposes.

Dan

[jreades]

No, you cannot run mySQL/PHP under OS9.

The reasons for this go far beyond my technical expertise, but basically you're getting into all sort of issues related to the underlying operating system/kernel -- OS9 was the last installment of the venerable *original* MacOS (written in something like PASCAL), while OSX beta is the first of a whole new breed that uses core BSD functionality, POSIX compliance, and so on and the Mach microkernel.

In addition, I believe that you'll need some kind of Web server (apache, roxen, etc.) to run PHP -- which you can compile into Apache as mod_php -- as it wasn't designed as a standalone scripting language (unlike, say, Perl).

I'd suggest that, before you go for building and installing your own database and scripting language that you spend some time familiarizing yourself with the fundamentals of the *nix world -- this isn't meant as a slight or insult.

It's a suggestion for trying to get your brain around a whole load of concepts that were hidden/impossible in the more user-friendly but less powerful Mac world -- daemons, processes building and compiling, the /etc directory -- but which are now available to us.

Walk before you run.

<jon , limping steadily>

Absolutely not and there's little to no chance of it happening. If you want to learn these packages, you'll have to use some sort of UNIX. Whether it's MacOSX PB or not is up to you (I'd actually suggest using NetBSD/ppc or LinuxPPC to learn these tools on)

I learned php/mySQL by taking advantage of having both installed on the servers at pair networks (pair.com). Yes, it does cost money to get an account, but a couple months of that is cheap compared to even wasting your time as a newbie installing both programs on a Unix or Win box (assuming you have one).

I just use telnet, Anarchie and BBEdit (new version 6.0 has PHP syntax coloring)to work on files. Another great "tool" is phpMyAdmin, which you can get at: http://phpwizard.net/projects/phpMyAdmin/index.html
It's a php-based database administrator for mySQL and very friendly.

I don't work for pair and there are probably quite a few other ISPs who offer PHP/mySQL. Check around. I just know that their setup works well.

If you need php4, I have compile instructions at: http://sunwire.com/php/php_install.html

I haven't had enough time yet to get PHP/mySQL installed on OS X, but hope to use that as a self-contained dev machine.

[MusicMan]

Thanks, everybody...I will soon have access to an NT box with PHP and mySQL, as wells OS X on my Mac at work. Will I be able to use them on OS X as a self-contained system? How?

Well, this in in theory at the moment 'cause I haven't set it up, but you can compile PHP and mySQL for Apache, which is the webserver for OS X.

So those two will be running on the OS X webserver and you can access your local server via IE, which comes with OS X and you should have simultaneous access to php files through OS 9, which would allow you to use tools like BBEdit or Dreamweaver to work on the files. Then you can test them in the browser.

Does anyone know if BBEdit 6.0 runs directly under OS X? I haven't tried that yet.

I agree with this posting, a reliable a inexpensive ($9.95/mo) php/mysql web here on the West Coast is Hurricane Electric--www.he.net.

If you're not too concerned about 100% up-time, try these guys: http://www.digitalspace.net

Their mail servers are kind of unreliable, and the server response time isn't great, but it costs about $36 a year. Php and MySQL are included in the package.